forginhill wrote:Finished up these two from my local desert mesquite wood....

Lovely work and imaginative shapes! Mesquite is under rated. I love the coloration so much that I had grips for my 1911 made for it. Now you have given me ideas for the mesquite I find out here in west Texas!

I live in the Sonoran Desert. The air is so dry that every time I have tried to carve green wood it has split badly on me. I always wait until the wood is dry before I carve with it. This means it's harder to carve, of course. I also have to use some different tools and techniques....different than the typical greenwood carver. Spoon carving is known as a greenwood craft. The main tool difference is that I use a gouge to hollow out the bowl rather than a curved knife like most spoon carvers use. Hope that helps....Probably more than you asked for... :)

forginhill wrote:I live in the Sonoran Desert. The air is so dry that every time I have tried to carve green wood it has split badly on me. I always wait until the wood is dry before I carve with it. This means it's harder to carve, of course. I also have to use some different tools and techniques....different than the typical greenwood carver. Spoon carving is known as a greenwood craft. The main tool difference is that I use a gouge to hollow out the bowl rather than a curved knife like most spoon carvers use. Hope that helps....Probably more than you asked for... :)

I live outside of El Paso. I don't know whether that is Sonoran or Chihuahuan desert, but I think they are very similar. I have only two tiny mesquite shrubs on my 80 acres, but I see them torn down for construction a lot. I should get a few pieces and let them cure. Wood carving a few small objects sounds like an intriguing skill to acquire. My spouse has carves acrorns on one of her gun stocks, so I will have someone to share my new hobby with!

I been a carver for some time. I live at 53N in the west slope of the Rocky Mountains.
Big works are only 4" x 12" x 30" and a couple on the bench now 5" x 5" x 64" Western Red Cedar.

We strip the bark and paint the ends with glue or old paint = anything.
The concept is to slow down the cut end drying and make it more equal to the water loss
from the sides of the log/wood.

Plan B is to do nothing and expect 6-8" cracking at each end. I get old shake blocks like that.
14" - 16" good wood in the middle.

In any case, we expect that the wood will dry, out doors, in the shade/under cover, to a Moisture Content of 12-14% at a rate of about 1" per year thickness. IOW, a 2" stick will take 12+ calendar months, depending on the weather.

I am a retired wood science botany professor. I'm intensely curious to learn how you desert people are going to manage this water loss thing. Your Equilibrium Moisture Content is well below anything that I know.

Robson Valley wrote:I been a carver for some time. I live at 53N in the west slope of the Rocky Mountains.
Big works are only 4" x 12" x 30" and a couple on the bench now 5" x 5" x 64" Western Red Cedar.

We strip the bark and paint the ends with glue or old paint = anything.
The concept is to slow down the cut end drying and make it more equal to the water loss
from the sides of the log/wood.

Plan B is to do nothing and expect 6-8" cracking at each end. I get old shake blocks like that.
14" - 16" good wood in the middle.

In any case, we expect that the wood will dry, out doors, in the shade/under cover, to a Moisture Content of 12-14% at a rate of about 1" per year thickness. IOW, a 2" stick will take 12+ calendar months, depending on the weather.

I am a retired wood science botany professor. I'm intensely curious to learn how you desert people are going to manage this water loss thing. Your Equilibrium Moisture Content is well below anything that I know.

Thank you for the info. That is a good starting place for me. The tip about painting the cut ends, especially.
The drought of the past decade has wreaked havoc on the ecology. Trees are hard to come by in the desert, yet the highway department scraped away much of the mesquite which was growing near the highway. I am more tempted to stop the vehicle now and grab some branches, but I had not envisioned myself as a wood carver. Thanks for the motivation!
As for the SouthWest, I don't know if anyone has a plan. I guess that the assumption is that the desert will always survive. I know that in the city, they ration water usage by assigning days to water their lawns. We live 80 miles east of El Paso. Wells have to be 900 feet in order to get to the good aquifer. Most folks go to the local community well in Dell City. We hope to set up a rain water reclamation from our roof gutters so that we can have water for a greenhouse garden and some trees. I also want an indoor waterfall and talapia pond for hydroponics. My partner and I are both in our sixties, but we are inching toward our dream!
I will run those numbers passed by sweetie, who has a great facility with numbers. But know that a 2 inch thick branch would take a year of curing timme is helpful.

Painting the ends with something, anything, is never a mistake. Just plug it up.
But, there's some woods that will crack from end to end no matter what you do (apple).
I carve red cedar and yellow cedar, OK, if you don't need detail. Paper Birch is heaven for a hard wood.

No shortage of water here, both liquid and solid.
Only been a couple of avalanche deaths so far this winter.
Partly stable conditions and partly smarter people ( snow pits, safety equipment, etc)
A fast sled (90 mph) can't save your butt.
The big runoff up top gets going in June, quite a sight to watch the little rivers just wild.
Nothing around me more than 9,000'. Robson is 12,9 and an hour east.
Mostly 7k, maybe 8k